How to clean your wheel/wheel well/brake calipers ver. 2
Thread Starter
Former Vendor of MBWorld
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 1,348
Likes: 2
08 STI
How to clean your wheel/wheel well/brake calipers ver. 2
Okay so a couple years back i did a write up on how to clean wheels, here is another one with most of the same products, however I switched up a few things.
Here is the set up, I have had the STI now for over 3000 miles and unfortunately I have had no time to give it even a proper wash, actually I haven't washed it yet. The day I figured I had some time it got just too hot to finish it. (98 degrees!)
Anyway here is a teaser. I got started on the wheels and after 3000 miles of caked on brake dust I decided to go all out!
By this I mean wheels were off the car, wheel wells were cleaned and dressed, brakes were polished and waxed.
Products used:
Uber Wheel Kit
Menzerna PO85RD
Sears Jack
19mm Socket
Ratchet
Torque Wrench
Cam Spray Pressure Washer
Now to the pictures:
Before shots of the wheels.
Before Brakes and Wheel Wells. (reference left side, forgot to take all the complete shots, both sides were pretty dirty)
Wheel being pulled off using ratchet and jack.
Wheel off the car.
Back
P21S Gel on the wheels, I let it dwell while I cleaned the wheel wells and brakes
Back of the wheel
Front of the wheel
What it looks like after P21S sits for a while, the P21S Wheel Gelis pretty thick.
Cleaned both the front side and the back side with the Uber Boar's Hair Wheel Brush, The Uber Spoke Brush, and the Swissvax Wheel Brush, each one helped with the process of cleaning all that brake dust and dirt off the wheels.
After I applied Swissvax Autobahn on them.
Here is the set up, I have had the STI now for over 3000 miles and unfortunately I have had no time to give it even a proper wash, actually I haven't washed it yet. The day I figured I had some time it got just too hot to finish it. (98 degrees!)
Anyway here is a teaser. I got started on the wheels and after 3000 miles of caked on brake dust I decided to go all out!
By this I mean wheels were off the car, wheel wells were cleaned and dressed, brakes were polished and waxed.
Products used:
Uber Wheel Kit
Menzerna PO85RD
Sears Jack
19mm Socket
Ratchet
Torque Wrench
Cam Spray Pressure Washer
Now to the pictures:
Before shots of the wheels.
Before Brakes and Wheel Wells. (reference left side, forgot to take all the complete shots, both sides were pretty dirty)
Wheel being pulled off using ratchet and jack.
Wheel off the car.
Back
P21S Gel on the wheels, I let it dwell while I cleaned the wheel wells and brakes
Back of the wheel
Front of the wheel
What it looks like after P21S sits for a while, the P21S Wheel Gelis pretty thick.
Cleaned both the front side and the back side with the Uber Boar's Hair Wheel Brush, The Uber Spoke Brush, and the Swissvax Wheel Brush, each one helped with the process of cleaning all that brake dust and dirt off the wheels.
After I applied Swissvax Autobahn on them.
Thread Starter
Former Vendor of MBWorld
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 1,348
Likes: 2
08 STI
Results from all that hard work on the wheels.
Now that the wheels were done...on to the wheel wells.
P21S Total Auto Wash was used to cut the dirt and grime off the wheel wells as well as the suspension bits, and brake calipers.
Brushes were used to help clean up the wheel wells etc
After everything was rinsed and cleaned up, I moved on to polishing the brake calipers with Menzerna PO85RD after I put a nice coat of Swissvax Autobahn on them to give them a nice shine and protection.
Caliper After Polish and before Autobahn
Applying the SV Autobahn
Removing the SV Autobahn
Adam's Undercarriage Spray was applied to bring back a nice new look to the wheel well covers (note I did wipe down any access to prevent a oily greasy look, I was going for a matte finish)
Rear Before
Rear After
Front Before
Front After
After of the wheel back on the car (less the tire dressing)
Now that the wheels were done...on to the wheel wells.
P21S Total Auto Wash was used to cut the dirt and grime off the wheel wells as well as the suspension bits, and brake calipers.
Brushes were used to help clean up the wheel wells etc
After everything was rinsed and cleaned up, I moved on to polishing the brake calipers with Menzerna PO85RD after I put a nice coat of Swissvax Autobahn on them to give them a nice shine and protection.
Caliper After Polish and before Autobahn
Applying the SV Autobahn
Removing the SV Autobahn
Adam's Undercarriage Spray was applied to bring back a nice new look to the wheel well covers (note I did wipe down any access to prevent a oily greasy look, I was going for a matte finish)
Rear Before
Rear After
Front Before
Front After
After of the wheel back on the car (less the tire dressing)
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 391
Likes: 6
From: So California
2000 SL500
Great write-up but I think life would be a whole lot easier for you if you just changed your brake pads to a Ceramic compound. I used to put on a disposable glove every 2-3 days and wipe my AMG's. Now I don't need to touch my wheels AT ALL in between washes and my calipers stay clean as well.
No more ugly black brake dust for me!
No more ugly black brake dust for me!
